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Showing posts from December, 2024

Meeting Butler County, Ohio

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  I was invited to spend a long weekend in Butler County, Ohio, just after they became Wheel The World certified for accessibility. The tourism board wanted me to write about how wheelchair accessible the region is. I hadn’t been there before, and it sounded like an interesting area, so I made plans to go. My trip to Butler County turned out to be one of my most unusual adventures, with new experiences, and a lot of donuts!   I brought Teddy and my friend, Heather, along for the ride, about three and a half hours from home. We had a nice welcome basket waiting for us at the hotel. Our home base was the Marriott Cincinnati North in Westerville. I was happy at the start with a flat entrance and automatic doors. They didn’t have any accessible rooms, so we had two connecting rooms. Teddy loved going back and forth between the two rooms. Mine had plenty of space for me to wheel around, a well-equipped desk area I could reach, and a large bathroom with a shower chair. The hand...
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The Safari in Central Illinois

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It had been a couple of years since I visited AikmanWildlife Adventure in Arcola, Illinois, less than an hour from where I live. The first time, I was impressed and excited. I had never seen anything like this in a small town that’s basically in the middle of nowhere.   I had been anticipating having the same feeling when I returned recently, but I found it was even stronger as there was much more to experience as this adventure is like no other I’ve seen anywhere in the U.S. James Aikman, whose family owns Aikman Wildlife, met me inside the shop, which  is also home to some of the smaller creatures, like Jax the McCaw, a lemur,  an iquana, and a sloth (for which they are planning encounters.   The dream for a park like this came from James and he and his wife, Kelsey, purchased the former Rockhome Gardens property in 2015. It is fittingly run with mostly members of their large family. Just a walk around the property brings you next to free roaming peacocks,...
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Location: Arcola, IL 61910, USA
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TWA Hotel Brings Back Lots of Memories

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The first time I was in the TWA Terminal at JFK Airport in New York was when I was 11 years old. After years of taking road trips down south or cross country each year, we were taking our first flight. It was to Florida, and we were leaving out of this modern terminal on a jet plane. It looked just as I remembered when I arrived at the TWA Hotel in the same spot as the old terminal. I had left the Viana Hotel in Westbury to spend   24 hours here before my flight home to Champaign the next day.   From the moment I wheeled in on my scooter, I was transformed back into the 70s, with music from that period playing throughout the building, as well as photographs, memorabilia, and even cars. All was in bright colors, predominantly the TWA red.   Check-in to the TWA hotel was familiar at the counters previously used to check in to your flight. The ones that were not being used for that were spots for quick service food, forming a bit of a food hall with favorite New York c...
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Location: John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), Queens, NY 11430, USA
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